Raccoon Creek Bridge

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FROM NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION - BUREAU OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES -NEW JERSEY HISTORIC BRIDGE DATA:
"The four-lane bridge is a single-span movable Waddell-type vertical lift with four encased steel stringer approach spans. Its overall length is 285' with a 52' roadway. The main vertical lift span, which is skewed, consists of a single, 93'-long toe-to-toe, thru girder with floor beams. The span is constructed to permit it being lifted vertically to a height of 64' clear above mean low water. At each end of the main span are steel towers approximately 95'-high. Each tower consists of two built-up girder legs with horizontal and diagonal sway bracing. Between the tops of the opposite towers pass two girders, and suspended between the girders is the central overhead machinery house. Cantilevered off both sides of the main span are concrete deck sidewalks with sheet metal balustrades. The main span is operable.

Power for lifting the bridge is supplied from the central overhead machinery house that contains an electric motor and a back-up gas
engine. At the top of each of the four tower legs are sheaves over which pass steel-wire ropes. The ropes are attached at one end to
counterweights and at the other to couplings attached to the roadway. Power is transmitted from the motor to the sheave coupling by
means of direct drive line shafting and gears. The span moves up and down along a C-shaped guide on the interior of the tower legs. The
machinery is equipped with brakes, clutch, and locks. The two counterweights consist of concrete blocks held within riveted steel plate frames on the exterior side of the tower legs.

The approach spans are concrete encased steel stringers with concrete balustrades and sidewalks. There are four approach spans, two
to the north and two to the south of the main span. The bridge has a concrete substructure with cutwater piers. The fenders are timber
piling. At each end of the main span are safety gates original to the bridge construction. Additional modern safety gates have been added
at the abutment ends of the approach spans. Northeast of the northern approach span is a modern two-story operator's house."

"At one time Raccoon Creek was navigable upstream to Swedesboro, which was a shipping point for lumber and fresh produce."

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Raccoon Creek Bridge

Posted January 29, 2009, by Anonymous

This was one of two bridges that spanned Raccoon Creek at the south end of the town of Bridgeport, NJ. At one time the road was designated US 130/NJ 44, concurrently. The existing bridge still has NJ 44 stamped in the concrete on the leading edge of the southbound lanes. The non-existing second bridge appears to have been a rotating style (denoted by the icon that matches the existing rotating RR bridge), according to the following link. http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.asp?fname=brdp44sw.jpg...